Hitherto, multi-conductor kickless resistance welding cables have employed multi-part cable terminals at their opposite ends wherein the separate parts of each terminal half have been secured to one another by the use of solder, either soft solder or silver solder. Moreover, the ends of the individual cable ropes have likewise been secured by solder in their respective sockets. Experience has proved, however, that such solder-joining of the terminal parts to one another and of the cable ropes in the terminal sockets have resulted in imperfect junctions giving rise to high resistance losses at such junctions. The cutting of such terminals into sections at their respective pockets has shown that gaps frequently exist between the butt ends of the cable ropes and the bottoms of the sockets, further increasing the resistance encountered by the current, which thereupon has to flow through the thin side walls of the sockets on its way to the cable ropes.
The present invention reduces this resistance to a minimum by providing solid copper-welded gapless junctions, not only between the separate parts of each terminal half, but also solid copper-welded butt contacts between the ends of the copper cable ropes and the bottoms of the sockets. In this manner, solid uninterrupted paths of copper extend from end to end of the cable and its terminals with a maximum flow of current obtained therethrough.
An improved separator of elastomeric material and of roughly Maltese Cross configuration, when twisted longitudinally, causes its spiral grooves of circularly-arcuate cross-section to compress and grip the cable ropes tightly while, at the same time, permits cooling water to flow through the strands thereof from a central longitudinal channel through perforations in the walls of the hollow core of the separator.